How To Green Your Shopping Habits by Avital Binshtock
1. Clothes: When it comes to buying clothes, the greenest - and often hippest - purchases are vintage. For great finds, shop at used-clothes boutiques, online stores, or at prominent antique shows like Massachusetts's Brimfield, New York's Manhattan Vintage, or California's Vintage Fashion Expo.
If you have to buy new, look for eco-friendly materials like organic cotton, hemp, or recycled anything. Buy classic styles (not trends!) so that your purchase doesn't, in a year, end up in the landfill. And make sure your choices are well-made and durable so they don't fall apart after only a few months of wear.
2. Food: Did you know that a third of households' total environmental impact is related to food and drink consumption? To help reduce the footprint of the foods you buy, there are a few things you can do when at the grocery store. First, avoid the deli, since more than a third of all U.S. fossil fuels go toward producing meat, and since animal agriculture is highly correlated with pollution and natural-resource depletion.
Also, be willing to shop in the organic section, since fewer pesticides and other polluting chemicals are used to produce the items sold there. Look, too, for where a product was produced, and when. Buying local and seasonal reduces the miles your food had to be shipped to get to your shopping cart. Examine whether what you're considering buying is overpackaged; if it is, leave it in the store as a statement of disapproval that'll hit corporations' bottom lines. Finally, bring your own reusable shopping bags to prevent disposable plastic or paper bags from ending up where they shouldn't.
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